1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a movable foot-step for a vehicle, such as a bus for example. 2. Description of the Prior Art
In most passenger transport vehicles the vehicle floor is located at a considerable higher level than the ground plane, and it is necessary to arrange one or several steps for making embarking and debarking possible.
Transportation companies desire, on one hand, a first step as low as possible for facilitating embarking and debarking. On the other hand, it is desirable, especially at the front doors of buses, that there is a good ground clearance for reducing the risk of the front corner of the bus hitting the ground and being damaged. This risk is especially high when the front of the bus sweeps in over a pavement when slowing down at a bus stop.
The difference in level between the ground and the first step of the bus is pronounced still more if the embarking has to be carried out from the street level instead of from the pavement, when, for example, the driver is unable to stop the bus close to the pavement due to a wrongly parked car.
An extensible foot-step on a vehicle, which when extended also is lowered, makes it possible to achieve clear advantages such as the following:
A low first step having an improved ground clearance. PA0 When it is used on buses the step will be extended towards the pavement, meaning firstly that the risk is reduced that the passengers first have to step down onto the street before they enter the bus, and secondly meaning that it is not necessary to drive close to the pavement which reduces the risk of damaging the tires against the pavement edges. PA0 Lower step heights, less steep ladder inclination and larger tread plates are obtained since one of the steps will be located outside the vehicle. PA0 In vehicles having a very low floor height there are not needed any fixed steps in the vehicle, meaning that the floor of the vehicle will be planar the whole way up to the doors.
For many years there have been suggested several solutions of the movable step concept where the steps are extended when embarking and debarking, but frequently the structures have been very complex from a mechanical point of view or have operated unsatisfactorily and frequently also caused injuries to passengers.